Altamira prison brawl
| Altamira prison brawl | |
|---|---|
| Part of Mexican Drug War | |
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Date | 4 January 2012 |
| Target | Gulf Cartel |
|
Attack type
|
Mass murder |
| Deaths | 31 |
| Injured | 13 |
| Motive | Gang rivalry |
The Altamira prison brawl was a deadly fight that occurred on 4 January 2012 in Altamira, Tamaulipas, Mexico.[1] Officials from the state of Tamaulipas confirmed that 31 people were killed, with another thirteen injured.[2] The fight started after a drug gang burst into a section of the prison where they were banned from, attacking their rival gang housed there, triggering the fight.[3] During the altercation, the inmates used several kinds of white arms to kill their opponents.[4] The prisoners also used sticks and knives to massacre the members of the rival gang.[5]
Alejandro Poiré Romero, Mexico's Secretary of the Interior, pledged to work with the state of Tamaulipas.[6] In addition, the United Nations condemned the massacre and asked for the National Human Rights Commission to "monitor conditions of detention throughout Mexico."[7]
Causes
The state government of Tamaulipas reported that a group of inmates entered a prohibited area inside the prison and attacked the members of their rival gang.[8] Local media indicated that the brawl was between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, two drug cartels that fight for territory in the northeastern part of Mexico.[9] La Jornada newspaper, in addition, said that prison in Altamira had the capacity to house 2,000 prisoners, but actually had more than 3,000.[10]
Past incidents
Prison killings
On 15 October 2011, in the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, 20 inmates were killed and 12 were severely wounded in a prison brawl.[11] Some sources revealed that the killings were "planned executions."[12] Earlier on 6 August 2010, 14 inmates were also killed in a riot at the federal prison in Matamoros.[13] Moreover, in 1991, the time when Juan García Ábrego was the supreme leader of the Gulf Cartel, the federal prison in Matamoros experienced the massacre of 18 people.[14][15][16] In the nearby border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, 21 inmates were killed after a shooting inside the prison on 20 October 2008.[17]
On 26 July 2011 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a prison brawl left 17 inmates dead and 4 injured after "one group of inmates attacked rivals from another drug gang."[18] Some of the corpses were shot with assault rifles, and authorities investigates whether the weapons used in the attack were "stolen from prison guards, homemade or smuggled" inside the prison.[19] Surveillance videos show how two gangs of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Juárez Cartel stormed the prison with assault rifles.[20]
On 19 February 2012, in the city of Apodaca, Nuevo León, 44 were killed and 12 were injured in a prison riot; the brawl was, according to local authorities, between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, their former allies.[21] In the state of Durango, 19 inmates were killed in the prison of Gómez Palacio on 25 August 2009;[22] in the same prison on 21 January 2010, about 23 inmates were killed in a brawl.[23] On 19 May 2011, a shooting inside a prison in Durango left 8 prisoners dead,[24] and on 15 November 2010 a group of gunmen threw a grenade inside the prison.[25] In Tijuana, Baja California on 18 September 2008, nearly 19 inmates were killed in a brawl between rival drug cartel members.[26]
In Mazatlán, Sinaloa on 14 June 2010, a group of gunmen entered a prison, killed the guard, then entered a cell and massacred 29 people.[27]
References
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